1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a kitchen unit, and more particularly to a kitchen unit designed for providing facilitated use by physically handicapped persons.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With promotion of social welfare, there is a growing demand to remodel the conventional kitchen units so as to be better suited for use by physically handicapped persons. In a practical scene, any conventional kitchen unit has a front wall perpendicularly extending downward from the front edge of the countertop thereof carrying a sink or surface cooking elements. The front wall, which usually takes the form of the door of a cabinet for storing kitchen utensils, indeed poses no problem as long as for use by physically non-handicapped persons. However, it acts as an obstacle for a physically handicapped person who manages himself or herself to do kitchen work on the countertop sitting in a wheelchair. Precisely, when the physically handicapped person tries to make an access to the kitchen unit sitting in the wheelchair for the kitchen work, the foremost portion of the wheelchair such as the footplates impede his or her access against the front wall of the kitchen unit, thereby holding the person still far apart from the countertop. Due to this inconvenience, the physically handicapped person who has limited elbowroom in the wheelchair suffers much difficulty in reaching the sink or surface cooking elements on the countertop during the kitchen work even when he or she fully extends the arms. Further, when the handicapped persons are required to reach the farthest portion on the countertop, the physically handicapped person is required to lift his or her waist or take unnatural and laborious postures and actions, which is not acceptable for most of the handicapped persons in the wheelchairs.